Halion 6 in Bitwig

[Tj Shredder]

I just realized, that Halion loaded into Bitwig as VST 3 does do polyphonic pitch bend without further investigation. I guess the Bitwiggers did a good job of implementing all VST 3 features which allow polyphonic pitch bend, and Steinberg as inventors of VST 3 did a good job with Halion in this regard...
This is a good argument for Bitwig as MPE DAW though we still see also problems there... I am confident, that those will be fixed in the not so far future...
Are there other more complete VST 3 instrument implementations around?

[Echoes in the Attic]

Actually aside from per note pitch bend, Halion otherwise does not work so well as it does not allow per note pressure or timbre. So you don’t get either of those modulators, only velocity.

[BobDog]

If you use Halion multis (same patch per channel) then pitch, timbre and channel pressure can be used per note.

[Echoes in the Attic]

If you use Halion multis (same patch per channel) then pitch, timbre and channel pressure can be used per note.

Not in bitwig because when bitwig detects vst3 it does not send per channel midi cc and channel aftertouch and you can’t force it. Have you tried? I had a big back and forth with bitwig about this and there was no way to do it. Bitwig only sends polyphonic aftertouch as per the vst3 spec but infuriatingly Halion does not accept it (or polyphonic timbre/brightness). Only polyphonic pitch.

[BobDog]

Sorry I haven't tried in bitwig only cubase and I can quite believe BW messes things up!

I use channel aftertouch in a multi not poly, have you tried that?

Also have you tried using the VST 2 or have they stopped providing that?

[Echoes in the Attic]

Sorry I haven't tried in bitwig only cubase and I can quite believe BW messes things up!

I use channel aftertouch in a multi not poly, have you tried that?

Also have you tried using the VST 2 or have they stopped providing that?

No vst2. And like I said, bitwig only sends polyphonic aftertouch to vst3, you can’t have it send channel aftertouch. It’s very annoying. It automatically sends channel aftertouch per note/channel if you force mpe for vst2, but even though the force mpe option is there for vst3, it has no effect, it detects vst3 and sends polyphonic aftertouch only, which of course Halion doesn’t recognize, nor any kind of polyphonic timbre. Neither company’s support understood what I was saying, I got nowhere. Basically each blamed the other. Halion and bitwig is just not a good match. Except for plucked string type things where all you want is velocity and per note pitch bend.

There are other issues too when using Halion and an mpe device like when using a mono legato instrument, then the pitch bend doesn’t work for any note that overlapped a previous note.

[BobDog]

Ah Ok, got you.

I have given up on Bitwig for exactly these sort of issues with them messing around with midi, it's a shame because it is a nice piece of software but I have paid for the original and one extra year and they sorted out nothing that was important to me.

[rollingcarbon]

Hi All!
I have had a Linnstrument for a few days now and I'm experimenting with Halion Sonic in Cubase and other VSTs. So far I have not been able to get polyphonic pitch bends to work. I was happy to read here:

"If you use Halion multis (same patch per channel) then pitch, timbre and channel pressure can be used per note."

I followed Geert's video on setting up with Cubase and in Halion (midi track input set to ANY and I have an instance of a patch for channels 2-8 in Halion Sonic.) The Linnstrument is in MPE mode (channel per note). When I press notes on the linnstrument, Halion cycles through channels 2-8 as expected, but the pitch bend and modwheel can only be controlled when channel 2 is active. I have made a video to demonstrate this behavior: https://youtu.be/CZyCwDnbUKs
Any help to resolve would be great!

[Tj Shredder]

If you select the Halion device, there is a button MPE, that has to be switched on. Bitwig either uses Midi or expression. As it supports VST3 in most of its glory, it can also send expression to Halion. In this case, you leave MPE off and will get polyphonic pitch bend with a single instrument on channel 1... Bitwig would translate the MPE channels into expressions...

[Echoes in the Attic]

If you select the Halion device, there is a button MPE, that has to be switched on. Bitwig either uses Midi or expression. As it supports VST3 in most of its glory, it can also send expression to Halion. In this case, you leave MPE off and will get polyphonic pitch bend with a single instrument on channel 1... Bitwig would translate the MPE channels into expressions...

Hey, somewhat old post, but just curious if you've actually tried this. From my experience, it was not possible to send mpe expressions to halions note expressions for reasons I mentioned above (Bitwig prevents channel pressure from going into VST3, only sends poly aftertouch, which Halion doesn't seem to register, and there's no timbre modulator in Halion). I haven't tried the Halion demo for some time and they don't let you try it twice so I can't confirm either way. Perhaps Bitwig has changed something lately, not sure.